Bob Obar (102063.2640 at CompuServe.COM) wrote:
: The technique I've always used instead of toothpicks is the real
: inexpensive pointed or circular plastic loops that many suppliers
: (such as Elkay, american Scientific, etc.) sell; you pick the colony
: with the tip of the loop, touch the medium in a sterile tube with it
: (so that you can grow an overnight culture if the PCR result
: warrants it), then touch the tip into ~50 ul of water in a 1.5ml
: microfuge tube, and cut off the end of the loop so that it falls
: into the tube. Cap the tube, boil for 10min, spin, and you've got
: PCR-ready DNA. This also works well for phage plaques.
However inexpensive these plastic loops might be (and the same goes for
yellow tips), they are 100 to 1000 times as expensive as toothpicks.
And they screw up the environment more when discarded!
Best wishes,
--
Chris Boyd | from, | MRC Human Genetics Unit
chrisb at hgu.mrc.ac.uk | not | Western General Hospital
http://www.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/~chrisb | for | Edinburgh EH4 2XU, SCOTLAND